WORKGROUP vs MSHOME

[altair4]

How do I change the workgroup in Mint from 'WORKGROUP' to MSHOME' ?

Hehe, finally someone asked the most important question...

Don't want to get into GUI vs CLI arguments, but IMO the workgroup name should be able to be changed in networking GUI, after all it is a networking feature.

OK, I'll give you 2:

(1) This one requires a little work at first to be completely GUI.

Open Terminal
Type shares-admin
Select Unlock > General Properties > Workgroup

You can create a menu entry for it since although the package is installed by default in Mint7 it does not have a menu entry.

(2) Install system-config-samba

Once installed select: Menu > Administration > Samba > Preferences > Server Setting > Workgroup

You need to be very careful about how you use the rest of the functions of these two utilities and it's probably why they are not in the menu by default. Both of these are utilities to configure "Classic Samba". Mint / Ubuntu by default do not use "Classic Samba" - they use Usershares ( i.e., Nautilus-Shares ). You could really mess things up if you try to use both and aren't very careful about what you're doing.

To me using these utilities to change the workgroup name is like installing OpenOffice just to edit a config file - but that's just me.

[qbicdesign]

Yes i see what you mean, that works, but its rather longwinded and a little dangerous.
I wish it could be simpler...
And with CLI I have a lot of trouble remembering which config files to edit.

[Kino]

Hi,

First let me say that I have recently installed Mint and think it is an improvement over ubuntu - keep up the good work!

However, I am having trouble connecting to my Windows 7 laptop which previously I had no problems in doing.

I have followed all the instructions given above and keep getting the message "Failed to retrieve share list from server"

My samba configuration is for WORKGROUP and my laptop is the same.

Does anybody have any ideas?

Thanks in advance,

Kino

[altair4]

Kino,

I would suggest starting a separate topic on this since this one is specifically talking about whether matching workgroup names makes any difference.

PS: Try this first:

Open Nautilus and type in one of the following:

smb://Win7_machine_name

Or Better yet:

smb://Win7_IP_Address

If you can connect then "Bookmark" it: Nautilus > Bookmarks > Add Bookmarks

It will show up under "Places" in nautilus exactly the same way a "mapped drive" does in Windows.

[SunWorks]

I know this is not the topic, but am so doggone frustrated, words cannot describe. I've searched the forum, looked in the wiki, every place people say to look, but for a newbie, there are a tremendous amount of basic things that are assumed.

With that said, where is nautilus?

the only thing I have is Menu-Preferences-Nautilus Actions Configuration.

I'm trying to hook up a Mint8 desktop to a Windows XP home and share files... From the XP machine I can see the Mintbox via "View Workgroup Computers" and when I terminal "smbtree" in my Mintbox, it lists the XP resources I want to access...

but after that I am lost and *more* than frustrated for the many hours spent on this, which IMHO should be documented someplace cause it seems like a lot of people want to do this.

Oh yeah... I can print from the MintBox to the printer attached to the XP machine... and I have connected to the XP home box via a wireless router.

Am glad to start a new thread, but am beyond frustrated at this point when I keep on reading "Nautilus" and for me, at this point, it's far from Nobvious!

Thank you.

[marli]

dont worry mate.
you get over the frustration off people assuming that you know....
Nautilus is the "explorer" of mint, on your menu if you click anything under "places" it opens Nautilus, its confusingly called file browser!

try it
menu>computer

then
help>about

PS although help says its called "Nautilus" its actually "nautilus". yeah that capital N caused me an hour of confusion at the command line.
It is better to start a new thread. if anyone else want to know the answer to this question it would be easier to find.
By starting a new thread you are helping create the evergrowing FAQ that is linux documentation.
since none (or as near to none as to be none) of us gets paid ever little bit helps

[BigSteve_G]

I think (at about 60% sure from experiance) its only a problem with Windows machines in a peer-to-peer network (seems to be something with the no more then 10 connections at a time limit Micro$oft put in non server products & its protocals) wereas with Linux its not a problem

Beside doesnt anyone with a little networking knowledge just give their networks names they prefer anyway?

[kevr]

I'm beginning to notice a lot of confusion/disagreement over whether Mint's default workgroup should be MSHOME or WORKGROUP, and I think i can help here.
Much of the argument is based around networking with Windows computers, but all arguments are actually rather invalid, and here's why (for the benefit of any newcomers). This is my personal analysis of the situation.

In Windows XP Home the default workgroup name is MSHOME
In Windows XP Professional and Windows Vista (all versions i think) the default workgroup name is WORKGROUP.

so there we have it. an MSMESS.
Currently Linux Mint is following the MSHOME workgroup model, presumably because most most Mint users are in a home environment where networking with Windows XP Home is likely to be the most common scenario.

Comments would be most welcome.

sorry, but i have to say.. this is definitely way off topic. But, there is also a need for this if you do have Windows 7 computers on the same network - Windows 7 networks only share with each other when you use the supporting network group "Homegroup" for most versions of it.

[qbicdesign]

Not off topic at all.
Basically MS has confounded the problem further in Windows 7 by adding yet another new workgroup name - Homegroup.
I guess this is something of a compromise between Workgroup and Home, but all it does is make home network connectivity even harder.
Grrr

[Prescottech]

Why would anyone use the default workgroup anyhow? It's just another security compromise IMO

[sfhdweb]

To change the workgroup name in XP Pro... open "control panel", select "performance & maintenance" then "system". Click on the "computer name" tab, then click on the "change" button to change the workgroup name or computer name.

thanks for suggesstion ,

[leopoldbirkholm]

Hello everyone,

Just wanted to say Thank you to the OP and this is a very interesting post for me. It has been very helpful and interesting reading. Thank you.

kind regards
Leopold B.

[degarb]

It is escaping me why the name matters? People swear it doesn't.

All I know is of two Mint installs, none had networking working out of box. Firewall messes it up, host file messes it up, missing ntfs abilities, missing users, missing entries in samba.conf. I am so confused after 20 + hours with this mess, and only mint machine is now networking, while I totally broke the other to point it cannot see network ( I edited conf and added fuse?), before messing with it I could see linux machine but no mounting xp. Face it, Mint is broken on networking out of box, 2 for 2 here.

Someone just write a program to fix this. WE should never need to edit and break this samba.conf (risking breaking entire machine) or add users via a command line, which is cryptic and unmemorable.

[TE5LA]

A funny thing I noticed is, if you run the Windows 7 networking wizard to set up a group, it asks whether it is for home or work. If you choose "Home", it makes the name "WORKGROUP". If you select "Work", it makes the name "MSHOME".

[BigSteve_G]

Just to mention....

When I had a Mint 8 & Mint 9 mixed network with firewalls setup I had a lot of problems with machines not connecting to each other yet now all machines are running Mint 10 (& I've not installed or setup any firewalls) connections fine & even better then it was before, although now I share through Natulis shares not from the samba config thing.

-Anyone know where the config file id containing the network name? as I'm going to edit it manually.

[spike_seti]

if you run all linux computers you can name the network LinuxGroup or LinuxHome. it wont be MSmess.

I find out that the Fire-wall for linux mint don't like windows at all, but you can use it for a full on liunx network you will see all the computers and share with them using a Linux Base server as a the mean firewall for your network.

[andysdp]

Does it matter anyway? I've always used WORKGROUP personally, as the networks I'm involved with are normally mainly XP pro (unfortunately). However, when using Nautilus to browse the workgroup through "Network" it always fails - has done for years! I have spent many hours messing about with hosts files and changing settings to make it work like the "network neighbourhood" in Windoze but never really succeeded. I stick to fixed IP's - works every time. It's always been one of those things I'd like to sort out, and would probably make life easier for those used to windows, but have never found a decent tutorial on the subject. It's all about the settings no doubt!

[blueXrider]

The best part of the banter is, no one really cares whether its WORKGROUP or MSHOME or MYHOME or LINUX_NETWORK. As long as each PC has the network setting the same they will all talk to on another.

[altair4]

On my lan I have 4 different workgroups with a mixture of Windows, Macs, and Linux machines and everyone can see and access each other. Having the same workgroup as long as you are all in the same ip subnet has never been a requirement.

[truexfan81]

hmm, interesting, i decided to try the instructions to change the workgroup name, i edited the file, no problem there. pasted in the command to restart samba and got the response: samba: unrecognized service

just out of curiosity i typed in "samba", got the response:
The program 'samba' is currently not installed. You can install it by typing:
sudo apt-get install samba4

funny this is this is a fairly new install of mint 9, i have not to my knowledge removed anything yet so don't understand why sama was not installed

edit: even after installing when i try to restart it, by typing sudo service samba restart
i get the response: samba: unrecognized service confusing

mint 9 main 64bit